The press service for the Russian Cabinet of Ministers earlier reported that “the Russian and Serbian prime ministers were set to discuss a wide range of bilateral trade and economic cooperation including the implementation of bilateral large-scale projects in the energy and infrastructure spheres.”

The officials are also set to discuss cooperation in the credit and financial, transportation, industrial, agricultural, humanitarian and cultural spheres.

Cooperation in the energy sector is currently among the priority issues in relations between Russia and Serbia, particularly with the South Stream gas pipeline project under the implementation.

The project was also in the focus of the discussions between Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Serbian colleague Ivica Dacic over two weeks ago during the visit of the top Russian diplomat to Serbia.

Lavrov said at that time that they both confirmed bilateral agreements on the South Stream and the need to implement the project.

Dacic said in turn he saw no reasons that could be viewed as obstacles for the construction of the South Stream pipeline, which is planned to stretch across the Serbian territory along with some other European states.

Russian state energy giant Gazprom is implementing the South Stream project to diversify deliveries of natural gas to Europe bypassing Ukraine with the aim of reducing dependence on transit countries.

The South Stream Transport B.V. company is an international joint venture organized to carry out planning, construction and subsequent operation of the gas pipeline that will be laid through the Black Sea to Bulgaria and on to Italy and Austria.

The sea section of South Stream will run along the bottom of the Black Sea from the Russkaya compressor plant on the Russian coast to Bulgaria’s coast. The overall length of the sea section will total over 900 kilometers (560 miles), the maximum depth will exceed two kilometers and the annual design capacity stands at 63 billion cubic meters.

The first supplies of natural gas via the pipeline are scheduled for late 2015.